This invention relates to a manufacturing process of an inert ballistic element for military training purposes and to an inert ballistic element manufactured by said process.
It is known that the term “ballistic element” in its most general sense is used to denote any object propelled by firearms or released by self-propelled objects such as missiles, rockets or aircrafts.
It is also known that inert ballistic elements, that is to say, without explosive charge, are used during training or testing manoeuvers to simulate attacks on a target in order to study the ballistic behaviour of the ballistic element without having exploding parts.
The description below refers to a specific type of inert ballistic element consisting of an inert bomb body that is used during training manoeuvres and is dropped from aircrafts.
It will, however, be understood that the invention as described herein may be extended to any other type of inert bomb body and, more generally, to any type of inert ballistic element.
As known, current aircraft bombs substantially reproduce four bomb models manufactured to American standards and identified by the abbreviations MK-81-82-83-84, respectively.
These bombs may be active, that is to say, filled with explosive material, for use in military operations, or inert, that is to say, filled with inert material, used in training or testing.
In both cases, aircraft bombs consist of a bomb body with a fin assembly applied to the tail end and a nose applied to the front end.
In prior art, inert bomb bodies, while differing in their specific realization features, all basically consist of a main hollow body with a nose at the front and a tail ring at the back.
Inside the main hollow body an inert ballast is disposed, consisting of a mixture containing mainly cement, whose purpose is to give the bomb body the same ballistic properties as those of active bomb bodies.
In particular, the main hollow body is made in one or more parts by hot forging a metal tubular element.
This machine process gives the main hollow body the tapered shape required by design specifications which guarantees, also through a gradual variation in wall thickness of the main hollow body, required position of the centre of gravity, of required moment of inertia and of the other ballistic properties.
The main hollow body is then filled with a single inert material, usually a mixture of cement, which, once solidified, forms a single block with the body, so that the body itself has the same weight and ballistic properties as the equivalent active bomb bodies used in military operations.
In particular, the main hollow body of the inert bomb bodies is the same as that used for active bomb bodies which are different from the inert bomb bodies exclusively in the explosive nature of filling material.
Once the main hollow body has been filled through the opening at its back, the opening is closed by a flange screwed to the tail ring.
The outside surface of the bomb body also has the housings for the rings by which the bomb body is suspended from the aircraft.
Prior art bomb bodies of the above type have, however, several well-known disadvantages.
A first disadvantage is that used bomb bodies of this kind cannot be recycled because it is impossible to economically separate the main hollow body made of metal from the cement filling material used to give the inert bomb body the same ballistic properties of those of the active bombs.
As a result, once used the inert bomb bodies known cited must be disposed of in suitable landfills or dedicated sites without recycling and reusing the metal material which the main hollow body is made of, thus increasing operating costs and polluting the environment.
Another well-known drawback is the complexity of the construction process and the length of time needed to fill the main hollow body with the inert cement materials.
More specifically, the cement material, after being filled into the main hollow body, must be allowed to stand for a predetermined length of time so that it can set and become solid.
This invention has for its object to overcome the above mentioned disadvantages.